India’s Crackdown on Dark Patterns in E-Commerce 

Introduction 

The Government of India has stepped forward in its fight against the clandestine and harmful employment of dark patterns in online shopping settings, which may be a strong push towards moral online consumerism. On July 22, 2025, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution urged all e-commerce websites to perform self-audits and eliminate the dark patterns that trick consumers when they visit the portal and make an online purchase in a news statement issued via the News Information Bureau on July 22, 20251. This strategy takes root in the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 in that it provides the regulatory authority with the legal instrument to compel moral behaviour since the act declares such tricks as unfair trade practices under Section 2(47). In a bid to uphold the rights of online shoppers, the Indian government has stepped up the fight against rogue, dark net activities as part of a historic attempt to safeguard consumer online rights. The government has issued an independent advisory through the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution that requires e-commerce platforms to undertake self-audits and do away with deceptive design techniques to undermine user autonomy. This important ruling shows that the state is still interested in the establishment of an ethical, transparent and customer-friendly digital economy. Mitigating against the unethical and criminal practices has never been of utmost importance since the stream of e-commerce and digitised services is ever expanding. The underlying scenario, relevant implications, and the expected influence of this new trend of consumer friendliness in the digital arena are the primary content subjects of our investigation. 

Explanation 

Dark patterns are the unethical user interface designs, formally called deceptive user interface designs, and digital platforms are increasingly employing them to coerce consumers into making unwanted decisions. These may involve such tactics as drip pricing (unifying secret fees at actual passage), confirm shaming (tripping up the user by pressure into performing an activity), and false urgency (purging choices with reduced timers or availability). The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) claims that this practice is illegal and against provisions of Sub-section 47 of Section 2 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. In these issues, the CCPA mandated on 30 November 2023 the publication of the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023, which enumerates 13 examples of manipulative practices in the digital environment, such as bait and switch, subscription traps, basket sneaking, interface interference, and rogue malware¹. These recommendations formed a practical taxonomy that would allow recognising dark patterns and offered an evaluation system that e-commerce websites can use to determine the effectiveness of their site design and replace it with a better one. 

To develop upon these guidelines, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs organised a stakeholder meeting, through which the key e-commerce companies, National Law Universities, consumer rights organisations and industrial associations were engaged on 28 May 2025. The consequence was the issuance of an official advisory on 5 June 2025 named “Advisory in terms of Consumer Protection Act, 2019 on Self-Audit by E-Commerce Platforms to identify the Dark Patterns”. To be on the safe side, the advisory further instructs all platforms to undergo self-audit reporting in three months and self-declaration of non-use of any of the mentioned dark patterns. It is meant to pass the compliance burden on to the platforms themselves and, in addition, create consumer trust and transparency. This advisory is a milder, but tactical regulatory strategy to promote internal responsibility instead of using only punitive measures. The expected scrutiny should be made of platforms by looking at their user interfaces, their terms of service, modes of pricing, and flows in promotions. This leads to the establishment of an operational culture with the focus on user autonomy and ethical design, rather than inducement and manipulative growth strategies. To give structural backup to this endeavour, by office Memorandum dated 5 June 2025, a Joint Working Group is set up. It includes representatives of ministries and the National Law Universities as well as of the Voluntary Consumer Organisations. The Working Group has the responsibility of updating the regulatory expertise, discovering new types of dark patterns, and encouraging continuous communication between the government and the business environments. The collaboration will be multi-disciplinary to make future regulation dynamic and tech-informed, and contextually adaptive.  

This change is consistent with recent developments in the European Union regarding the Digital Services Act and GDPR, which can be best paralleled to limitations on deceitful design and imposed accountability of platforms. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has recently handed out enforcement actions to companies trying to use dark patterns to subscribe or buy users who are not aware of what is happening. That of India is, however, unique in its focus on involving the different stakeholders and voluntary reform using self-audits and declarations, a more complex model showing where administrative intent is wrapped by the formal co-operation of institutions. Although this is a big step forward, there are still some obstacles. There could be a lack of resources and technical know-how by smaller platforms to conduct extensive self-audits. The use of self-declaration, though constructive, may result in under-reporting unless clear oversights are used or periodical external checks are done. To have a long-lasting effect, the government can incorporate AI-driven compliance-monitoring instruments, routine publication of disclosure, and a grievance redressing system to have credibility and the involvement of consumers. 

Conclusion 

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs initiative of regulating the usage of dark patterns through advisories, guidelines, and collaborative frameworks marks a paradigm-shifting move in the digital consumer protection process in India. The conjunction of any legal basis of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, the practical sense of the 2023 Guidelines, and the strategy of regulation as exposed in the June 2025 Advisory frames Indian jurisdiction as a leader in the realm of ethical digital governance. The Joint Working Group constitution guarantees that the policy is both proactive and future-ready. Although there is bound to arise the issue of implementation, this model brings accountability, promotes internally driven change, and focuses on user wellbeing, which creates an environment that can not only obtain compliance but also innovation when designing ethical technology. Finally, the prohibition of dark patterns is not only a regulatory requirement but a democratic promise to maintain the dignity of the consumer in the digital era. When platforms start filing their self-declarations over the next several months, it will be their decisions that will decide whether this drive will go down as a landmark of digital rights advocacy or yet another of these noble-sounding, pointless policy statements.